Mitchell Plateau

Discovered by Scott Mitchell several years ago this idyllic retreat is just a stone’s throw from Clamshell Cave and has a handful of pretty classic easy and moderate problems as well as some lurking potential for gnar.

 

 

 

 

Bulge Boulders

A few weeks ago Kelly Sheridan and Johnny Goicochea cleaned and established a couple of roadside gems near Icicle Buttress. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once again Ecochlor has enabled me to see a bit more of the world.  This time I was sent to Israel for a seminar given by FilterSafe, our filter partner.  After a few days of education we embarked on a tour by bus to a few of the countries more ancient cities.  The first of these was Acre (Akko in Arabic).  Situated on Haifa bay in Northern Israel, it is reputedly one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in Western Galilee.

On the way back to Tel Aviv we made some historically significant stops, first to Capernaum, or more accurately, the ruins of a place once called that where several apostles and possibly even Jesus lived for a time.  We also visited the River Jordan at a site where pilgrims from around the world come to be baptized.

The next day we travelled to Jerusalem, a city full of history as well as thousands of other tourists.  We visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, a variety of ancient markets and the infamous Western Wall. I enjoyed an underground tour of the latter, weaving through layers of previous incarnations of the city.

One more night in Tel Aviv and I was off to France for a month of pure sandstone bliss, fodder for an upcoming blog post.

Much like Japan, Israel is a country I would probably never have visited on my own but that I was happy to experience without a lot of expectations.  It’s also a country that many westerners perceive as dangerous, several friends voiced some concern.  In reality though, like many other places with that stigma, Israel is relatively safe.  There are some places within the country, I’m sure, where one should probably not go, but overall you’re not in much more danger than you would be anywhere else.

I hope that future work opportunities will find me back in Israel for more exploration, I saw quite a bit of promising limestone…

 

 

 

 

Last week I pulled away from Hueco and headed West.  After a few days with my Dad and a chilly night in Arizona I went for the long drive back to Bishop to climb with good friends in the beautiful Buttermilks.  Here are a few photos of my man Kyle O’Meara pulling down on the sweet sweet patina…

 

In early November I once again joined my Dad in Japan for a few weeks of work in the shipyard.  We rendezvoused in L.A. and soaked up some Hollyweird before an early flight through Hawaii and into Osaka.  There we met up with Larry Bee, a colleague from Proflow, a company based in Connecticut that helps design and manufacture our equipment.  Still groggy from travelling we pulled into Sanoyas and got to work wrapping up our loose ends from the trip before.

Our friend Nishi had vowed to give us a tour of Shikoku, one of the four major islands of Japan and only a long bridge away from us.  The Seto Ohashi bridge is a mammoth water crossing, impressive by any standard, it stretches from Honshu to Shikoku over the course of 13 kilometers.  We visited the Kompira-San shrine, dedicated to the protection of seafarers and their ships, which features over a thousand ancient stone steps.

Shikoku is also famous for its Udon noodles so we lunched on handmade noodles covered with fresh ginger and ground sesame seeds.  Udon is also served at the shipyard mess hall where most of the workers gather for lunch.  They also offer a mystery bento box and a daily entree, my favorite was Curry Wednesday.

A few days later more of Team America showed up, Richard and Pete, also from Proflow.  After months of bugging Team Japan for bicycles they granted us a stable of cruiser bikes.  Some of them worked better than others but most days we managed to get most of the team on wheels.  This was a great improvement as the ship seemed to get further away every trip.  At this point it was looking almost complete, there was still a lot of painting and detail work but it was floating in the water and didn’t seem to be sinking.

We fiddled with the equipment, Richard and Larry on the computer while my Dad and I tightened bolts and installed tubing, until everything seemed to be in order.  Our chemical safety guru, Marcie, arrived and completed the team.  We made arrangements with the crane crew and spent most of a day bringing the chemicals on board.

Another day of testing the system and we were ready for our final exam, showing the process to inspectors from the shipyard and ABS.  Larry and Mike flipped switches and monitored screens while Isa and Nishi explained the process and reassured the inspector.  Marcie and I climbed into the cargo hold to test the ballast water and came away with satisfactory results.  While it was hard to read the reactions in Japanese it seems that we made the grade.

Japan has never been at the top of my list of places to visit, it always seemed interesting but so far away and reputedly expensive.  Plus, I’ll admit, there’s not a lot of climbing.  In some ways this was a good perspective, I didn’t go there with a lot of expectations or plans.

When asked I’ve had a hard time coming up with any conclusions about the country, for all it’s cultural differences it feels a lot like any other developed country.  I’m reminded of John Travolta’s character in Pulp Fiction explaining Europe to Samuel L. Jackson.

“It’s the little differences. I mean, they got the same shit over there that we got here, but it’s just…it’s just there it’s a little different.”

Japan is no Europe, in a lot of ways it’s very different but people are still living their lives in a pretty ordinary fashion.  I think westerners have a romantic vision of Japan full of samurai and ninjas (maybe that was just me), I didn’t see any sword wielding assassins anywhere.

I hope this series of blogs has been informative and maybe even interesting, like writing in a journal the practice seems like a good way to look at events in a new light.  Japan seems pretty far away from El Paso, TX where I’m currently hiding from a suddenly brutal winter in the Northwest.  Here’s the rest of the photos I put together for the blog, thanks for reading.

Not long after returning to my homeland I started making plans for another trip overseas.  This time we’d be assembling the treatment system.  Think big tanks, pipes, nuts and bolts and a lot of gaskets.  Unfortunately the initial uncrating and major assembly took place in the rain a few days before I arrived but there was still plenty of work to be done.

After we bolted on the last few lengths of stainless steel piping the shipyard stepped in and dropped the housing right on top.

These guys love their cranes.

For those of you that didn’t study the Ecochlor website I’ll break it down a little.

The ballast water, after flowing through the filters, is injected with a solution of Chlorine Dioxide (ClO2) which is made by combining Sulfuric Acid and Purate very, very carefully.  After eliminating unwanted organisms that the filters couldn’t get the mixture dissipates to a level acceptable for discharge.  A series of sensors and control panels control this whole operation which should engage automatically when the ballast pumps start up.

Voila, environmentally responsible ballasting.

I spent a day bouldering on Ojigatake Hill (blog here) as well as a day sightseeing with my dad and our friend Yukiko in Okayama and Himeji.  We dined on Okonomiyaki, one of my favorite Japanese dishes, checked out a castle and a shrine and rode on a bunch of trains, a bus and a taxi.

Besides our work on the treatment system there was still a lot to do down in the bowels of ship on our filters.  A series of chutes and ladders (ok no chutes) lead down below the engine to the ballast pumps.  Hours were spent crawling through the filters finishing up some wiring, routing copper tubing for compressed air and hunting for dropped washers and nuts.

We left with a few loose ends requiring extra equipment or extra expertise.  After we left the shipyard lifted the house onto the deck of the ship and made the appropriate external connections.  Ecochlor would be back in a few months to get ready for the final phase, commissioning.  This involves testing and approval by the authorities at the shipyard and representatives from ABS (American Bureau of Shipping).

One more installment, when I get around to it…

 

I knew that another trip to Japan was quite possibly in my future, the filters we assembled still needed a lot of electrical work and the process was worth documenting.  This was Ecochlor’s first installation into a new vessel.

In some ways this was advantageous, engineers could plan the equipment’s placement and allow for the proper space, as opposed to previous installations into already operating vessels, sometimes necessitating a hole in the side of the ship and complicated rearranging.  On the other hand, doing something for the first time can be tricky, unforseen challenges are almost inevitable and solutions can be complicated by the vast cultural divide.

Then there’s the weather.  Unlike our first trip to the Sanoyas shipyard, this work would be done outdoors in what would eventually become a ship, the Buenos Aires.  Our filters had been moved into the space soon to be occupied by the massive engine.  Tarps had been hastily erected to protect the equipment and keep the americans relatively dry.  The monsoon season was getting under way, which means frequent showers, high heat and of course, humidity.  Our status as workers required the shipyard uniform of a boiler suit (cruelly appropriate), hard hat, steel toed boots and a questionably useful safety belt complete with lanyard and oversized carabiner.

While I was still carrying around my camera, trying to keep a record of our progress, I was also broadening my duties to include pretty much any useful task.  This required a brief physical in the shipyard’s medical office, I couldn’t help but envision the petite nurse, her office decorated with a collection of bird portraits, dealing with gruesome accidents resulting from massive chunks of steel succumbing to gravity.  No such accidents occured during my tenure there but the odds aren’t very nice to think about.

The above photo begins to illustrate our initial task, installing wire trays and funneling said wire through said trays and finally, terminating these wires into boxes.  Sounds simple, and I guess it is.  We completed the task and then our filters were ready to be moved into there final position.  Precious crane time was alloted and we stepped back to let the shipyard workers do there magic.

My second trip only lasted a week, hardly enough time to adjust to the radically different timezone.  Japan is 17 hours ahead of Seattle, which leads to the classic world travelling conundrum of a ‘Groundhog’s Day’ like experience.  I would leave Osaka at 5:30PM on say, Wednesday and arrive in Seattle at 11:00AM the same day.  Meaning, Wednesday.  As I am not very good at sleeping on planes I generally arrive home in a state of utter spatial confusion.  Under normal circumstances I’m able to add 17 to almost any number but under these circumstances it takes me some time to calculate what time my body thinks it is and then to wonder why it’s still light out.

I’ve still got some blogging energy but I might as well split this up into trips.  Japan part three gets into the chemical treatment portion of the adventure, part four will wrap it all up.

My time in Japan last year has been the source of many conversations, most people are interested to hear my thoughts on the country and a bit confused about my work there.  Seems like the subject deserves at least a blog post with pictures and some explanation to clear things up.

I took 4 trips to the islands of Nippon last year, totalling about 8 weeks.  Most of the time was spent working though I did take some time for tourism my first trip there.  I explored a handful of climbing areas on days off, toured many temples and shrines and ate a lifetime’s worth of noodles and fish.

The company I worked for, Ecochlor, is a designer and producer of ballast water treatment technology.  For the truly curious a thorough explanation of their work can be found on their website. For the rest of you, here’s my abbreviated version.

In 2004 the IMO (International Maritime Organization) adopted the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments.  If you don’t know, most ships use water ballast to maintain proper draft, stability and control.  Here’s a better definition from the EPA:

“Ballast water is water from a port or other location that is taken onboard a ship and stored in tanks to add weight, thereby maintaining the ship’s trim and stability. For example, ballast water is often taken onboard as cargo is unloaded, and discharged as cargo is loaded.

Prior to departure or while en route, a ship may need to take ballast water onboard to maintain its stability and safety or to maximize its propulsion efficiency. On entry into a port, the ship may need to discharge ballast water to lighten the ship in order to maintain clearance under the keel in navigational channels or berthing areas, or to offset additional weight resulting from the loading of cargo or fuel.”

As our world trends (oh so slowly) towards environmental responsibility regulatory groups are starting to act on practices that endanger the earth.

In the words of the EPA (link):

“Ballast water is a major source for introducing non-native species into aquatic ecosystems where they would not otherwise be present. If the non-native species become established, they can adversely impact the economy or the environment, or cause harm to human health. For example, the management of zebra mussels near the Great Lakes has cost the U.S. economy millions of dollars annually. Costs include cleaning, monitoring, and retrofitting water intake pipes. Additionally, zebra mussels accumulate high levels of toxins which leads to health advisories for species in the food web.”

So, as the demand for ballast water treatment systems (BWTS) becomes a legal necessity, companies like Ecochlor have developed hardware that addresses the issue.  I’ll try to outline their system while giving some insight into my time there.

First, a word about shipyards.

All of my work in Japan took place at the Sanoyas shipyard just outside the village of Kurashiki.  If you’ve never been to a shipyard it’s an intensely industrial setting, full of welding and the movement of incredibly large chunks of steel in various stages of construction.  It’s loud, noxious and overall pretty harsh but at the same time it’s strangely fascinating and impressive.  Sanoyas produces around a dozen bulkers a year, each about 1000 feet in length with 7 immense cargo holds.  I spent some time in one of the holds while we tested some ballast water.

I’m getting a little ahead of myself but the scale of this place is important and hard to convey.  Here are a few photos of massive things moving through the air.  Sanoyas has several large cranes, the largest of which has an 800 ton capacity.  One more time, 800 TONS.  They have two of these and sometimes, when a particularly giant piece of ship needs to move, they use them both in concert.  Respect.

Okay, so during my first trip my main duty was to document the assembly of the filter system.  Ecochlor’s BWTS is comprised of a filtering system and a chemical system.  My dad, Mike, who hooked me up with this whole work opportunity, along with a crew of Japanese shipyard employees, used small cranes, wrenches and a generous helping of elbow grease to put these things together.

My dad and I checked out Kyoto for a day before work started, a blog about that can be found here. We had a few more days together after work was over and then I took a week for some solo exploration.  I settled into a Osaka hostel and ranged out from that city to check out some climbing and culture.  Our colleague Isa-San invited me to his home on the island of Kyushu where I spent a couple days getting a thorough tour.

The highlight of my time with my dad was a Japanese baseball game.  The Japanese have an unusual fervor for the game, I’ve never seen such passionate fans in the states, where we claim it as a national past-time…

I then checked out the boulders at Kitayama Koen, the conditions were less than ideal but the view was good and worth the adventure.

I took an overnight bus to Sasebo, where Isa and his wife live.  Travelling in Japan is efficient but expensive, a bullet train travels almost as fast as an airplane but costs about the same too, so I suffered through a long bus ride.  Despite less than ideal weather Isa was a gracious host and gave me a broad view of his home island.

This last photo is of the sidewalk restaurant Isa took me too before sending me back to Osaka.  Besides the novelty of street side cooking, this little stall made the best gyoza I’ve ever had.  Back in the big city for a few more days I checked out a couple more bouldering areas before flying back to Seattle.

Takedao was a multi day, full value adventure.  Day 1 involved no climbing but lots of wandering through rarely visited forests and by creepy shacks and other abandoned signs of life.  Near the end of the day I discovered the correct path to the boulder but it was too late.  The next day I returned and while I knew where to go the adventure insisted on continuing.  I had to walk through three creepy tunnels, reputed to hide the occasional creepy mugger, and when I finally got to the business of climbing a huge chunk of one of the problems fell off, luckily when I was at a safe distance.  A memorable climbing trip with very little climbing.

Kasagi went smoother but didn’t last as long.  I arrived in the evening and had just enough time to flail around on a really cool problem full of thumb holds.

This post is turning into something of an epic (and the coffee shop employees are probably wondering if I’ll ever leave) so I’ll save the rest for another day.